"The latest Taliban strike in Kabul killed a South African father running an education charity and his two teenage children, a family spokeswoman said Sunday, as the city police chief resigned after a spate of attacks. With the US-led NATO war against the Taliban nearing its end, the insurgents have targeted foreign guest houses, embassy vehicles, US troops and a female member of parliament in recent weeks. Werner Groenewald, 46, his son Jean-Pierre, 17, and daughter Rode, 15, were killed in Saturday's attack on the compound of Partnership in Academics and Development (PAD), a small California-based education group." (11/30/14)

"A suicide bomber attacked a British Embassy vehicle in the eastern part of the Afghan capital Thursday, killing at least five and injuring more than 30, according to law enforcement officials. It’s the latest in a spate of assaults targeting foreigners as most U.S. and international troops are preparing to withdraw by the end of the year. Authorities said the attacker detonated a car filled with explosives near the British vehicle, killing one British citizen and four Afghans." (11/27/14)

"An improvised explosive device fixed to a motorcycle has exploded in northern Afghanistan, killing at least six people, a local official has told Al Jazeera. Monday's attack happened in the busy market of Dasht-e Archi district of Kunduz province, a provincial police spokesman said. ... The blast came a day after a suicide bombing at a volleyball tournament in Paktika province killed more than 60 people." (11/24/14)

"At least 45 people were killed and 60 others were wounded Sunday after a suicide bomber attacked a crowd watching a volleyball match in the Yahyakhil district of Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province, according to a spokesman for the governor of Paktika province." [editor's note: This is a fairly early version of the story; the number killed seems in later accounts to have reached about 50 - TLK] (11/23/14)

"A new report coming out of the New York Times tonight reveals that President Obama has signed a secret order dramatically expanding the scope of US military operations in Afghanistan in 2015. Despite claims that the war is 'ending' at the end of 2014, the new order will ensure that US ground troops will continue to carry out direct combat operations throughout 2015, and potentially beyond." (11/21/14)

"Four Afghan Taliban suicide bombers died when a group of the militants tried to storm an international zone in Kabul in the latest high-profile assault aimed at foreign targets in Afghanistan. The attackers tried to break into a complex known as the Green Village on Wednesday, starting with the explosion of a van at the gate of the heavily guarded area in eastern Kabul that houses foreign contractors and various facilities. Security forces repelled them after about an hour of fighting and no casualties were reported among the area's residents, officials said." (11/20/14)

"At least four [alleged] militants were killed following a drone strike by NATO-led coalition security forces in eastern Kunar province. According to local government officials, the airstrike was carried out late on Tuesday evening in Ghaziabad district. Provincial police chief, Abdul Habib Syed Khel said two commanders of the anti-government armed militants were also among those killed in the raid. The identities of those killed in the airstrike have not been ascertained so far." (11/19/14)

"Four people were killed when a suicide car bomb detonated at a perimeter wall of a camp housing foreign contractors in the Afghan capital on Tuesday morning, allowing militants to enter the compound, a senior security source told NBC News. Both militants and two Afghan guards were killed." (11/17/14)

"A suicide bomber on Sunday attacked a vehicle convoy carrying Afghan lawmakers including a prominent female MP, killing three civilians and injuring 22 others, officials said. The blast, in which the attacker detonated an explosives-packed car, left the MPs’ vehicles badly damaged on a main road in the west of Kabul, close to the parliament." (11/16/14)

"Combat operations in the province of Helmand officially ended yesterday for US marines and British troops stationed there, bringing an end to a decade-long struggle to keep a major Taliban stronghold and the region’s vast opium production in check. ... The Afghan army’s 215th Corps will assume full control of the camps, a 6,500-acre parcel of desert scrubland in southwest Afghanistan – and with it responsibility for securing one of the most violent provinces in the country." (10/27/14)

"This is the unimpeachable rule of the war on drugs: Money goes in, and somehow the worst people benefit, and the drug trade soldiers on and on. Afghanistan is the world’s largest source of opium, and the sales of it have helped charming folks like the Taliban purchase weapons and other things most nice people would rather they didn’t possess. According to Stars and Stripes, when U.S. and NATO troops exit the country in a few months, they will leave behind 500,000 acres of poppies. This is a 36 percent increase since 2013. The amount of poppies has in fact been increasing since the U.S. invasion 13 years ago this month." (10/23/14)

"A tribesman was killed and two others injured when mortar shells fired from Kunar province of Afghanistan hit a border village of Pakistan’s Nawagi tehsil in Bajaur Agency on Tuesday morning. Officials of the political administration confirmed the incident that two mortar shells fired by unidentified militants from across the border landed in remote area of Babara Charmang, 43 kilometers north west of Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur Agency." (10/22/14)

"Officials say insurgents have attacked several army checkpoints in eastern and southern Afghanistan, killing at least four troops and wounding several people. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which happened Sunday, but the Taliban have stepped up assaults on Afghan and NATO forces ahead of the pullout of most foreign combat troops by the end of the year." (10/20/14)

"A suicide car bomber rammed a NATO military convoy along a major road out of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, early on Monday, killing one Afghan civilian, authorities said. Hours later, another suicide bomber killed a woman outside a clinic in a province east of Kabul and a third bomb exploded in a market on the capital's northern outskirts, wounding 22 people including three children, officials said." (10/13/14)

"Two Taliban suicide bombers attacked the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 15, government officials said, a day after the new government and the United States signed a long-delayed security agreement. The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces and the U.S-backed government, claimed responsibility for the attacks in the east and west of Kabul." (10/01/14)

"Afghanistan and the United States on Tuesday signed a deal to allow some US troops to stay in the country next year, signalling that new President Ashraf Ghani intends to mend frayed ties with Washington. ... Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar and US Ambassador James Cunningham inked the document at a ceremony in the presidential palace in Kabul as Ghani stood behind the pair looking on." (09/30/14)

"Ashraf Ghani has been sworn in as Afghanistan's new president, replacing Hamid Karzai at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul. It comes after six months of deadlock amid a bitter dispute over electoral fraud and a recount of votes. Under a US-brokered unity deal Mr Ghani shares power with runner-up Abdullah Abdullah who becomes chief executive. The Taliban called the deal a 'US-orchestrated sham.' A blast near Kabul airport killed at least seven people." (09/29/14)

"Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani was named Afghanistan's president-elect on Sunday after he signed a deal to share power with his opponent, ending months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilized the nation as most foreign troops prepare to leave. The announcement withheld the final election numbers, apparently as part of the political deal between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who claimed the process was rigged against him." (09/21/14)

"A suicide car bomber killed three foreign troops and wounded 13 Afghan civilians in an attack on a convoy near the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Tuesday, the NATO-led coalition said, one of the worst attacks on international forces in the Afghan capital in months. ... In western Herat province, one U.S. soldier was killed when an unidentified member of the Afghan security forces turned on his trainers late on Monday .... Also overnight, two suicide bombers set ablaze 26 fuel tankers in an attack on a customs post near a border crossing into Pakistan in Afghanistan's east, Afghanistan's TOLO media reported on Tuesday." (09/16/14)

"Seven suspected militants were killed following a US drone strike on the Pak-Afghan border area. The strike was reportedly carried out at the Pak-Afghan border on zero line with Paktika province along the South Waziristan Agency. Two top commanders of the Badr Mansoor group were also among those killed in the drone strike." (09/15/14)

"t least six militants were killed when Pakistan's military thwarted an attack on its check posts near the Afghan border, officials said Wednesday. 'About 70 to 80 terrorists physically attacked the posts, six terrorists were killed and nine injured due to an effective response by Pakistani troops,' a security official said." (07/30/14)

"A cousin and close ally of the outgoing Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has been killed in a suicide attack in the volatile southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, officials said, raising tensions during a struggle over the contested election result. Hashmat Karzai was a campaign manager in Kandahar for Ashraf Ghani, one of the two presidential candidates involved in a bitter dispute over fraud that threatens to pitch the country into worsening instability." (07/29/14)

"Attacks across Afghanistan, including hundreds of Taliban fighters swarming police checkpoints across the south, killed at least 15 people Saturday, officials said, as a recount in the country's presidential election halted before a major holiday. The Taliban attacks focused on Kandahar province, where Taliban fighters killed six police officers -- including a district police chief -- in assaults on some 15 checkpoints, said Dawa Khan Menapal, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Menapal said reinforcements later arrived to combat the Taliban fighters and the combat continued into Saturday night." (07/26/14)

"Taliban insurgents halted minibuses in western Afghanistan, identified 14 Shiite passengers and shot them dead by the side of the road overnight Friday, an official said. The buses were traveling from Kabul and carrying around 30 passengers, many of whom had gone to the capital to shop ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said Sayed Anwar Rahmati, the governor of the western Ghor province, where the attack took place." (07/25/14)

"Two foreign aid workers with an international Christian organization were shot dead Thursday in Afghanistan's western city of Herat, a regional official said. ... In a separate incident, explosives attached to a motorbike went off in the northern province of Takhar, killing six civilians and wounding 28 people, the interior ministry said." (07/24/14)